Star Wars Saga in HD

[TLBradbury]

This weekend (Labor Day) we finally hosted our marathon of the entire Star Wars saga in HD, and it was quite a treat. Now before any of you get your shorts in a twist on how I have HD copies, it was pretty simple. During the month of May (30th anniversary of the original film), they were all shown in HD on DirecTV, so I recorded them on my DVR.

The second trilogy (episodes 1-3) were all spectacular in sight and sound, as should be expected of any newer film, especially if it was all shot and edited digitally. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the original trilogy.

Episode 5 was simply stunning, particularly the scenes on the ice world of Hoth, but the original film (ep. 4) came off a bit corny, and episode 6 was just painful to watch because of all of the obvious matte paintings in the background, as well as the sparse soundstage on all 3 of the original trilogy. The mattes reminded me of the old days of film making, where they would project a pre-shot film of scenery and have the actors stand in front of it (or sit in a stationary car in front of it). The sound problems can be somewhat forgiven, since these were, in fact ground-breaking films in the world of surround sound and THX, and the technology was being developed along with these films, as well as the fact that if a full restorative work was to be done on these for Blu-Ray release, the sound would be the easiest part to dress up. The video and effects can be more problematic.

It was quite interesting for all of us watching to notice characters in the dark corners of Jabba's lair that none of us had ever seen before. These were obviously inserted for the 'Special Editions' that came out about a decade ago, but seeing them like this was still a lot of fun.

So why am I bringing all of this up? Am I simply trying to make some of you jealous? OK, I'm a little guilty of that one, but my real point is that with all of the pent-up demand out there for SW to be released in HD, what we get when it IS released might be a bit disappointing, given the state of the films, and the era in which they were made. Trying to compare them along side with today's films is simply not fair to the films or the viewer. We owe a lot to George and the folks at Lucasfilm for what they've done to advance the science and technology of movie making, and it is largely due to their efforts that the films we enjoy today are just so mind-numbingly spectacular, but when the saga finally arrives in HD (as it inevitably must), just don't be too disappointed.

[dragons lair]

Except that DirecTV down-converts HBO ( and all the other channels that still use mpeg2, HD locals on D* use mpeg4) to 1280x1080i and a bit-rate between 8-10), what you have saved is not real HD, I have them saved on my DVR (I use Comcast, which does not down-convert their HD channels, always 1920x1080i with a bitrate around 19) and they look f'ing great, maybe not as good as when they will be out on BR ( my guess, another 5 years based on how long it took to be on DVD), but we won't know that for a while.

[TLBradbury]

Yup - I understand that. My main point was that in their current state, the original trilogy just isn't holding up that well, and unless more work is done on them, a BR release will just highlight their shortcomings.

[WickyWoo]

I saw the ROTJ hanger matte (right before they launch for endor) at a museum SFX exhibit about 15 years ago

It was photorealistic from a few inches away. AMAZING work.

They also had the queen alien, the Power Loader, Johnny 5, Megamaid from Spaceballs along with the Winnebago (the small versions) and a bunch of other things

I was visiting Sony Imageworks a few years ago, and they had the dropship from Starship Troopers out. Honestly I'm amazed it looked so good on screen, or maybe it's just because it'd been dropped off the filing cabinet a few times and hastily glued back together

[koreyman]

George Lucas is huge into tinkering with the StarWars Films so you cen bet when it comes to bluray he will make sure it is at the level he wants them to be.

[MouseRider]

George has always been the trailblazer, in motion picture sound as the Star Wars series boasts two firsts, the first film to be mixed in a THX theater (Return of the Jedi) and the first film with a Dolby Digital EX soundtrack (Phantom Menace).

I will probably be very interesting to see how he brings the series to homes with HD.

[TLBradbury]

It will also be interesting to watch and see which (or all) version(s) are included on BD in light of CE3K and BladeRunner coming out with all versions in their sets. I might have to pull out my LaserDisc copies of the original trilogy one of these days to remember what the original cuts looked like! yes, I had LaserDiscs for MANY years before DVDs came out - superior technology for the day!

[Bullseye]

Exclusive titles such as Star Wars would go along way in helping to end this format war. After seeing them on HD-Sky i have to say they look amazing and that was not the full 1080p.

[Weirded Wonder]

Day one purchase for me.

[jkwest]

wow buddy...way to revive a dead thread...by 4 years to the day...

[jbig31]

Originally Posted by jkwest

wow buddy...way to revive a dead thread...by 4 years to the day...

Well, someone had to.

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by jkwest

wow buddy...way to revive a dead thread...by 4 years to the day...

Someone's on a mission to increase his post count...

[Navster]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

Someone's on a mission to increase his post count...

Either that or hes just here to annoy this Sh*t out of people resurrecting these dead threads... Seriously, wtf is the point?